University autos

Back in 2005, there was disagreement between the state Department of Finance and Administration and universities about vehicles provided by auto dealers to university employees. The gist of DFA’s argument was that said vehicles could no longer display dealer plates and were subject to payment of sales taxes.

I remember that Frank Broyles wrote a letter of protest. DFA’s solution was for the vehicle providers to lease autos to the universities for a nominal fee, thus providing an exemption from sales taxes. Somewhere in this whole discourse, somebody was going to submit legislation to remedy this issue. I saw no bill relative to this issue from the past session. Consequently, the issue remains. The problem with the “lease” solution was that it solved the sales tax issue, but created new problems. For example, the vehicle in the lease became state property and, by statute, could only legally be used for “official business.”

State law does not permit unlimited use of the vehicle by an employee. I remember that one of the Democrat-Gazette articles stated that Houston Nutt was provided with two vehicles. Why would Houston Nutt need two as opposed to one?

I’m not so naive as to believe that state employees aren’t continually guilty of using state vehicles for personal business (just drive around and casually observe). But isn’t it hypocritical for the university to hold a student accountable for a failed drug test or some misdemeanor infraction when the administration is allowing personal use of state vehicles? These folks are paid well, and as such, they are supposed to be smarter than what they’ve indicated so far.

Raymond Morgan

Star City

Fire Imus

I am a liberal and, guess what? Imus should have been fired. The likes of Rush Limbaugh the same. Imus described himself as a good person. His record may show it, but his comments are not to be accepted.

Racism and sexism are shameful diseases of ignorance. Whoever says things like this should absolutely not be supported, whether it be Imus, O’Reilly, Hannity, Coulter or Limbaugh. They are taboo to me. Anybody who uses that language is despicable.